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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > August > 04
Monday, August 4, 2008
Is it towel-tossing time yet?
What should the Cincinnati Reds do? Is it towel-tossing time? Should they keep trying to win games or should they experiment with lineups and positions?
Maybe they should try Brandon Phillips at shortstop? Maybe they should try Joey Votto in left field? Maybe they should transfer the franchise to Nashville or Spokane? You know, a fresh start?
I’m kidding, I’m kidding.
They are sputtering on three cylinders, spinning their wheels in the muck, their tongues hanging as they chase Pittsburgh and Houston in the National League Central.
Never mind Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis. Those three teams are distant cousins in faraway domains.
That doesn’t faze Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker, doesn’t make him want to give up the ghost of 2008 and think about 2009.
“Never quit. Never say die. Never,” he said before Monday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Despite losing eight of the previous nine that included three straight to the pathetic Washington Nationals, the Reds showed some spunk by stopping the Brewers, 6-3, behind Bronson Arroyo’s pitching and hitting.
Arroyo held the second-place Brewers to one run and four hits over six innings and drove in the game’s first runs with a two-run double in the fourth.
Asked if it isn’t about time to think about next year and tinker with things, Baker said, “Not for me. Most of the guys who are pretty close to being major-league players are here already and have been most of the year. It isn’t like we have 10 prospects at Triple-A who are ready to take a job up here.
“I always want to win, no matter who I put out there,” he added. “It has been only a few seasons that I went into September and it didn’t mean anything,” Baker added. “And it’s only August.
“In our division, a lot can turn around in a hurry,” he added. “If you get hot, man, I’ve seen it. People think I’m the eternal optimist, but I can be that because I’ve seen that and done that.
“You try to finish as high as you can finish,” he said. “These are primo times for somebody. When you are playing inside your division the last two months as much as we are, well, it might as well be us.”
That is talk from high in a steeple, an unlikely scenario, but for one night the Reds seemed interested and dedicated to winning a game.
“It has been a struggle,” he said. “But you keep fighting and you keep struggling. You don’t look back. You look forward. Keep the spirits high.”
Looking only one day back, the Reds are now 1-0.
Jeff Keppinger opened the bottom of the first with a walk, but the Reds didn’t have another base runner until Jolbert Cabrera broke up Manny Parra’s no-hit thoughts with a one-out single in the fifth.
Parra then walked Jay Bruce and David Ross to fill the bases and Arroyo banged a two-run double into the left field corner. Joey Votto pulled a two-run single to right and Parra’s no-hitter was now a 4-0 Reds’ lead.
Arroyo has four hits in his last six at-bats and said with a smile, “I came in on an off day with one of my buddies and I changed my stance a little bit hitting in the cage, messing around. I was joking around and I said I was going to try it and it has been working.
“It’s always luck when we (pitchers) get hits, but I’m feeling good at the plate,” he said. “I’m crouching a little more and widened my stance to see if I could stay back on breaking stuff.”
Spoken like a true Pete Rose.
Arroyo was nicked for a run in the sixth, but Bruce got two back in the bottom half.
Dropped to seventh in the order to protect him from the lefthanded Parra, Bruce drove his 10th homer the opposite way over the left field wall for a 6-1 lead.
“When you are lefthanded and hit a home run to left field off a lefthander, that means you’re staying on the pitch, not pulling off,” said Baker. “He hit a tough pitch.”
Bruce smiled when it was mentioned he was dropped from third to seventh on this night because Parra might have been too tough.
“Dusty has no evidence as to why he shouldn’t do that, but I know that I’ll have no problems with lefties soon enough,” he said. “You have to respect his decision. It’s logical for right now until I show him otherwise. I will. It’s just a matter of time.”
After Parra left the game in the seventh, he and his first baseman, Prince Fielder, engaged in a brief dugout shoving match when Parra was walking toward the tunnel to leave and Fielder didn’t like Parra leaving the scene.
“That’s our first win since Ken Griffey Jr. was traded and it is always a shock to a team when a guy who has been here a long time gets traded,” said Baker.
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TweetDon’t feed your suitcase
As a service to travelers, I have a warning. Your suitcase can grow in height. Really.
When I left Dayton for Washington on Airtran, my suitcase was fine. Passed muster and inspection.
Then this morning, the Airtran agent in Baltimore says, “That’s an extra $29.” I checked the scale and it said 47.5 pounds - well under the 50-pound limit.
“What for?” I asked.
“Your bag is oversized, two inches too tall,” she said.
So my bag grew two inches in three days in Washington. Amazing. I didn’t argue. I paid my $29.
While the Reds were on the road, a columnist wrote that the trouble with the Reds is the leather chairs and couches in the clubhouse and they should be removed and replaced with upright chairs.
That raised the dander of clubhouse Rick Stowe.
“Let’s see, Tampa Bay has couches in the clubhouse,” he said. “Milwaukee has couches in the clubhouse. The Chicago Cubs have recliner chairs all over the clubhouse. So I guess if you are in first place you can have couches and recliners. But if you’re in last place, you can’t have them?”
It does seem a bit ludicrous. I mean, I can’t recall the last time I saw a couch hit a home run or get picked off second base.
HOMER BAILEY still can’t get over his appearance two starts ago against Colorado when he gave up 15 hits - 14 singles one double and one walk in 4 2/3 innings.
“Fourteen singles,” said Bailey. “Seems like if anybody can do that, I can. Dick Pole (pitching coach) told me he has been in the game 40 years and never saw anything like that. I said I’ve been in the game four years and never saw anything like that.”
Speaking of couches, they didn’t take one out of Dusty Baker’s office, they put a new one in, “And I didn’t ask for it,” he said. “But (GM) Walt Jocketty likes it.”
About that time Baker spotted two quarters between the cushions, pocketed them and said, “Thanks, Walt. When I was a kid, my dad had a recliner and every time he got up and left the room I ran to it and dug out all the change.”
WHO DO YOU think should have been NL Player of the Month for July? Adam Dunn hit .310 with 12 homers and 26 RBIs. Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun hit .366 with nine homers and 23 RBIs.
Yeah, Braun won. Not only that, Milwaukee pitcher CC Sabathia was named NL Pitcher of the Month, “And the Brewers didn’t get him until July 5,” said Milwaukee writer Tom Haudricourt. But he was 5-0 for the Brewers.
A break for the Reds? During these three games against the Brewers they face neither Sabathia nor Ben Sheets. Of course, they face Dave Bush (5-9, 4.69) Tuesday and they’ll probably make him look like Walter Johnson.
WITH LEFT-HANDER Manny Parra (9-4, 3.93) on the mound Monday, Baker had an interesting lineup — Edwin Encarnacion batting third, Jolbert Cabrera playing right and batting sixth and Jay Bruce back in center field and batting seventh.
“This kid is tough, tough on left-handers, a tough little pitcher,” Baker said of Parra. “Young and good. And he isn’t far from where I’m from, just down the street actually.
“Trying to get some right-handers in there,” Baker added. “Bruce is going to hit third most of the time and third against some lefties, but I thought it would be better to put Eddie third against this kid, especially the way Eddie hits lefties.”
Is Bruce a No. 3 now or a No. 3 later?
“Depends on how he handles it and I think he can handle it big-time,” said Baker. “It’s now or later, but you have to find out sometime. You protect him sometimes against some lefties, like this guy.”
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go check my laptop computer bag to make sure it isn’t growing.
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